Delhi HC stays Medical Council order absolving Fortis Hospital doctors in medical negligence case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has stayed the Delhi Medical Council's order that had absolved doctors of Fortis Hospital at Shalimar Bagh of medical negligence case in relation to brain damage suffered by a newborn at the facility.

Justice Navin Chawla also issued notice to the Delhi Medical Council (DMC), Medical Council of India (MCI) and Fortis Hospital seeking their stands on a plea moved on behalf of the two-year-old toddler, who became mentally and physically disabled due to the brain haemorrhage suffered during delivery, and his mother, who have challenged the clean chit given to the doctors.

Earlier, the Delhi HC directed the police to lodge an FIR against Fortis hospital and its management in the case wherein the complainant claimed that the doctors caused grievous injury to the brain of the Master Devarsh during birth, rendering him disabled, and for further concealing the injury from the parents. The complaint sought registration of an FIR under various sections of IPC, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 193 (false evidence) against the hospital, its directors and the doctors who performed the operation.

Read Also: Alleged Negligence During Child Birth: Court Directs FIR against Fortis Shalimar Bagh

The petition, filed through advocate Sachin Jain, claimed that Delhi Medical Council (DMC) presided over the matter as an expert body despite not having the authority and converted it into disciplinary proceedings in which it held there was no medical negligence on the part of the doctors of the hospital.

The plea has alleged that council on August 13, 2019 "illegally passed an order to conclude that the records of the hospital show that standard medical protocols had been followed and therefore, there was no negligence on the part of the doctors".

"The DMC in its proceedings failed to make any opinion with respect to the injury caused to the infant, for which the matter was sent over to it for opinion," it said.

The petition has claimed that the hospital had "concealed" the brain haemorrhage suffered by the baby during the caesarean delivery and "the concealment deprived the infant of timely treatment due to which the injury got aggravated to an irreversible extent".

The plea has also contended that the "superficial exoneration" granted to the doctors and the hospital by the DMC has obstructed the investigation into the criminal complaint moved on behalf of the petitioners. "The fact of brain injury was deceptively concealed by the hospital. Due to concealment of injury, the child remained under immense pain which was not known to the parents.

"Eventually the child developed a rare disease called West Syndrome which could be discovered after more than seven months of the incident, by way of MRI," Jain told the court.